Organic electroluminescent (EL) devices which utilize organic substances are expected to be useful for application as an inexpensive full color display device of the solid light emission type having a great size and various developments on the organic EL devices are being conducted. In general, an organic EL device has a construction comprising a light emitting layer and a pair of electrodes sandwiching the light emitting layer. The light emission of the organic EL device is a phenomenon in which, when an electric field is applied between the two electrodes, electrons are injected from the cathode side and holes are injected from the anode side, the electrons are recombined with the holes in the light emitting layer to form an excited state, and energy generated when the excited state returns to the ground state is emitted as light.
As compared with an inorganic light emitting diode, conventional organic EL devices requires high driving voltage and only exhibited low luminance or low efficiency of light emission. Moreover, characteristic degradation of the conventional organic EL devices was also extravagant and as a result, they were not practically used. Although recent organic EL devices are improved step by steps, it has been still demanded to develop organic EL devices operable at low driving voltage, with excellent luminance and favorable efficiency of light emission.
For example, there is disclosed such a technique using a single monoanthracene compound as an organic light-emitting material (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 11-3782A). However, in this technique, a luminance obtained by using the material is as low as 1650 cd/m2, for example, at a current density of 165 mA/cm2, and an efficiency of light emission thereof is very low, i.e., only 1 cd/A, which is practically unusable. Also, there is disclosed a technique using a single bisanthracene compound as an organic light emitting material (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-12600). However, in this technique, an efficiency of light emission obtained by using the material is also as low as about 1 to 3 cd/A. Therefore, further improvement of the technique has bee demanded for rendering it practically usable. Further, there is disclosed a technique using a mono- or bis-anthracene compound together with a distearyl compound in an organic light emitting medium layer (International Application Published under PCT No. WO 00/06402). However, the device described therein fails to show a sufficiently long half lifetime and, therefore, further improvement has been demanded therefor.